A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas on Blu-ray

Before this, I hadn’t seen any of the Harold and Kumar movies. I was vaguely aware they were about the misadventures of two best friend stoners. Usually, that’s not my thing, although I did see Pineapple Express two or three times. Imagine my surprise when I laughed really hard at A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas. It kind of made want to smoke a blunt, rent all the other films in the series and lock myself in my living room for days.

In this Christmas-themed addition, the film begins with a very stoned and very lonely Kumar buying weed from the trunk of a mall Santa played by Patton Oswalt. It becomes apparent the Kumar and Harold have called it quits, and Kumar’s girlfriend Vanessa (Daneel Ackles) is estranged and pregnant. Harold has become a somewhat uptight, successful married man faced with spending the Christmas weekend with his wife’s large and diverse family, led by menacing Danny Trejo. Harold is charged with decorating the Christmas tree while the rest of the family attends midnight mass on Christmas Eve. But when Kumar shows up to deliver some of Harold’s mail, the tree burns down at the hand of an enormous joint, and the two begin their adventure trying to replace a twelve-foot Fir on Christmas Eve.

As one would expect of a stoner comedy, there’s crazy car crashes, naked nuns making out in the shower, a claymation sequence, Russian mobsters, and an interesting spin on the classic A Christmas Story scene where the boys get their tongues stuck to the frozen light pole. Neil Patrick Harris even reprises his role as himself, despite being fatally gunned down in one of the other films. It’s crass, ridiculous, and super hilarious. While the only film I feel the need to watch during the holiday season is Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël), I believe that I will now add A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas. I just won’t be watching it with the family.

It should be added that the film looks great on Blu-ray, but I’m terribly sad I missed this in theatres when it was showing in 3D. I can hope to catch it at a revival theatre, right?

The bonus features on the Blu-ray are pretty hilarious. There’s several vignettes of Tom Lennon unleashing a long string of various rants in a candid interview, and a few deleted scenes I felt should have been added to the extended cut of the film. Here’s a full list of the Blu-ray’s bonus features:

– Through the Haze with Tom Lennon
– Bringing Harold and Kumar Claymation to Life
– Deleted Scenes